Baking & Snack - May 2007 - 34

I N N O VAT I O N S

ᮣ Flowers Foods'
Center for Product
Innovation will combine the company's
product development
efforts from its Atlanta
and Thomasville,
GA, plants.
FLOWERS FOODS

ᮡ Flowers was quick
to market with its
white bread that
offered the nutrition
of whole wheat. The
company also quickly
responded to consumer needs with a
sugar-free bread and
a reduced-carb bread.
This 100% wholewheat made with
organic flour variety
contains 24g of whole
grains per slice.
FLOWERS FOODS

of innovation centers. Companies are centralizing and
consolidating innovation efforts and, in some cases, creating teams from product development, marketing and
sales departments.
A New Leaf. The most recent announcement of such a
centralized approach came at the end of April from Maple
Leaf Foods, Toronto, ON, the parent company of Canada
Bread Co. Maple Leaf announced its plans to establish a
food innovation center to enhance product development,
culinary knowledge and consumer insights.
"During the past few years, Maple Leaf has grown our
portfolio to provide consumers with exciting new products that deliver taste, nutrition and convenience," said
Michael McCain, president and c.e.o. "We want to accelerate our leadership in innovation, which is fundamental
to broadening and deepening our customer relationships
and achieving our financial goals. This food center will
provide a powerful catalyst to drive new product development. The result will be a focused and profitable stream of
innovations that build on our strengths as a value-added
meats, meals and bakery company."
The company will invest approximately $12 million
in the center, which will be constructed adjacent to its
existing office tower in Mississauga, ON. It is expected to
open by early 2009.
Resources will include culinary facilities, a designated
food service kitchen, sensory and product development
areas, teaching facilities and a global culinary insight and
trend library. The company's experts in innovation and
culinary strategy will collaborate product development efforts across Maple Leaf 's global bakery
and protein businesses.
According to the company,
the facility will be a central
hands-on learning environment for sales, marketing and
product development staff to
develop and share new food
concepts and recipe ideas, and
evaluate preparation and display
techniques with food service and retail
customers. It will also support consumer
research and product testing.
Blooming Opportunity. Flowers Foods, Thomasville,
GA, is in the midst of readying its new Center for Product
Innovation, which will combine the company's product development efforts from its Atlanta and Thomasville plants.
The innovation center is strategically located next to
Flowers' Thomasville bakery. According to the company,
the close proximity to a full-scale bakery that produces
breads, buns and some cake items makes it easy to take a
new item from development to test production in a stateof-the-art bakery.
Currently, the company is completing phase one -
relocating personnel to the innovation center. Phase two

38 / BAKING & SNACK / May 2007

- installing the lab and the production equipment needed
for product testing - has already begun. The company is
consolidating equipment from its old R&D labs and has
purchased some equipment as well. When completed, the
facility will be able to handle small-scale runs of breads,
buns and rolls as well as some baked and fried cake items.
The center also has a large meeting facility and a sensory
evaluation room with a full-scale kitchen.
In addition to centralizing its R&D efforts, the center
will focus on creating synergies among other relevant
groups within the company. "Flowers Foods' new Center
for Product Innovation brings together, under one roof,
the key teams involved in new product development -
namely marketing, product development and technical
services," said Allen L. Shiver, president and c.o.o., Flowers
Foods Specialty Group. "Some companies keep product
development separate from marketing and manufacturing, but we rely on close synergy between these areas."
Product development at Flowers is driven by consumer
research. The marketing team continually assesses consumer
insights and works closely with product development, technical services and manufacturing to create new products
that meet market demand. "While we have a formal structure in place for product development, the actual process is
quite fluid, relying on continual open and frank discussions
between all the teams involved," Mr. Shiver said.
According to Mr. Shiver, one of the company's competitive advantages has been speed to market, and the new centralized approach will expedite this process even further.
Along with the center came a restructuring of the product development group to reflect the strength of this new
approach to innovation. At Flowers, marketing has always
driven the product development process, so it made sense
to formalize this by making marketing responsible for initiating and prioritizing new product development projects.
Previously, it fell under technical services, an area that also
encompasses manufacturing support, quality assurance and
regulatory affairs. "With product development now reporting to marketing, we've created a structure that seamlessly
joins these two functions," Mr. Shiver said.
The product development staff reports to Janice Anderson, vice-president of marketing. Charlie Moon, the
vice-president of technical services, and his staff will continue to be very much involved in product development.
New positions will be added as needed, and there will still
be individuals at the plant level who will work closely on

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